My Take on Bernie’s Endorsement

We know there were probably many factors in Comey’s decision not to recommend indictment for Hillary Clinton—the possibility that Bill Clinton blackmailed Loretta Lynch or her independent investigators for example. Knowing the background, you could interpret Comey’s press conference several ways, most of them having to do with bowing to the demands of his superiors. I’ve had some doubts about my own interpretation of it. For example, I listened to an interview by Mike Malloy on Saturday in which his guest said something about political maneuvering. That made me wonder, for a while, if Comey was influenced by his concern that an indictment would result in a Sanders presidency. However, I still believe that the main problem was that Comey was not free to recommend an indictment. The question is, why would he bow to this pressure?

I suspect many Republicans in Congress were concerned about the effect of an indictment on the presidential race but I don’t think that explains Comey’s decision. I’m not holding my breath that the men and women in Congress will make good on their promise to revoke Clinton’s security clearances or re-investigate her private server but we’ll have to wait and see what comes of it. I strongly suspect they’re torn between revoking her clearances and kissing her feet. You see, I think Clinton may have pulled off the coup they’ve only dreamed of.

There was a discussion on Morning Joe Sunday about whether the Clinton camp knew Comey was going to give this press conference. They concluded that the Clintons must have known. I disagree. They may have known Clinton wouldn’t be indicted but I don’t think they knew about the press conference. I doubt they would have taken the chance that Comey would frame it the way that he did. If I’m right about this, there’s really only one important question that we need to answer: why would James Comey agree to not press charges? I think he would need a good reason for going along with this part of the plan—something more important than saving his job. What if he was trying to give us a clue about what’s going on behind the scenes?

There’s a theory being tossed around on right-wing YouTube channels that Clinton’s series of private servers represents a parallel government. In this government, Hillary and Bill have been wearing all the hats—including some of the hats normally worn by the commander in chief. The same people say that at this point it wouldn’t matter if the Clintons were taken out of the picture because the Clinton foundation is a spider’s web that covers the entire globe. That would explain why Hillary never seemed worried about the implications of the email scandal for her candidacy. Her nomination was already a done deal. She deleted the emails mainly because they contained privileged information about the workings of the new world government.

I hope this is not true, but no doubt the current administration would have liked to avoid the mere suspicion, which it would have been able to do if not for the hacker, Guccifer. But while we can’t know if the theory is true I think we need to seriously consider it, as it explains what we’ve seen in this election better than any theory I’ve heard. It even explains the roller-coaster of Bernie Sanders’s campaign during which he was clearly the rightful winner, and yet failed to make a ripple in the final result. However I suspect we will eventually come to understand that winning isn’t everything, as Bernie has been trying to tell us. His campaign has indeed made ripples although we haven’t had the time to recognize them yet. And the very idea that we have to judge the worth of our efforts on the outcome of this election, after seeing its sordid character first hand, is sheer nonsense.

Before we go on, we need to understand that this is just politics, meaning that we don’t have to like the eventual nominee. I personally will never forgive the Clintons for what they’ve done to us in this election, or for what they may have done to our nation. However, as a citizen of a democracy (of sorts) my rejection of the Clintons doesn’t relieve me of my obligations to Bernie Sanders.

The Clintons ‘victory’ changes nothing about the realities we face. We still have the same tasks ahead of us and they are just as urgent as they ever were. However now we have someone in our corner who has Clinton’s ear—Bernie Sanders. It would have been better for us if he were the nominee, but it seems that was never in the cards, and now that Bernie has endorsed Hillary I’m taking my cue from him.

In my opinion, the bloggers who are behaving as if this is still undecided are just prolonging the anguish. Furthermore, I think they’re proving themselves to be fair-weather friends. This one says he’ll vote for Jill Stein. That one argues that we need a Republican administration to assure a progressive in the next election. I ask you, what will become of Bernie’s movement in that case?

I’m not going to tell anyone who to vote for. I will ask people to at least think strategically.

But I’ll ask for more than that. In the big picture there are other considerations besides strategy. Where did Bernie come by all this influence, you ask? He got it from us. If we abandon him now we destroy his influence and leave him without the clout that he needs to be taken seriously in the future. I think that regardless of how confident the YouTubers seem that they can single-handedly recreate the wheel as far as Bernie’s movement goes, Bernie is still our best bet for the future. If we listen to them not only would we be abandoning Bernie, we’d be abandoning those members of Congress who supported him at great personal risk. This is no way to go about building a new civilization. And it might indicate a serious flaw in the way people are thinking about this process.

After hearing Bernie’s words over the last year and knowing that he’s been saying the same things throughout his career, there’s really no excuse for doubting him now. This behavior says more about one’s lack of self-confidence than it says about Bernie. The end result is to make them look just like the Clinton camp, which apparently believes winning is the only meaningful outcome regardless of what they have to do to make it happen.

I’m still not ruling out a miracle but I’m extremely concerned about the comments I’ve read from these supposed Bernie supporters. Whatever happens before the convention, continually going over Clinton’s crimes and her lies about those crimes, will have no effect on the outcome. What’s more, it will set people up for another disappointment. If some sort of ‘miracle’ does happen it won’t be because of her offenses while in office. The FBI investigation was our last hope on that count and that didn’t pan out. So please, let’s not go flying off the deep end just when Bernie needs us the most.

So what are we to do in the election? Again, I won’t tell you who to vote for, but I will suggest some things you should not to do. You should not get all wrapped up in some alternative outcome just because things didn’t turn out the way you hoped. Don’t vote for a candidate because you’ve been told he or she is just like Bernie. I won’t say the other candidates’ names because their supporters can get spiteful, but they are nothing like Bernie. Therefore, the argument, ‘if not Bernie then one of these other candidates’ makes no sense to me. Furthermore, their parties have no relation to Democratic Socialism, no matter what they’ve told you. Vote for their candidates if you think that will help, but not because you feel pressured to make something happen. You don’t have to do anything you’re not sure of.

I’m sick about the way this election has gone and I would not have the heart to make these arguments if I didn’t think the worst has already happened. On the other hand, that doesn’t excuse us from continuing to fight, especially when our champion in still in the ring. Let’s not throw away what we’ve accomplished here.